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A week after Mayor Tony Roswarski said he’d hoped to keep projects “moving to the best of our ability,” the city is preparing to halt construction of Loeb Stadium, a $20 million remake of the ball field in Columbian Park.

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Workers work along a construction wall near the location of the future bating cages and team locker room as construction continues on Loeb Stadium, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020 in Lafayette. Nikos Frazier | Journal & Courier

A man points to the third base bleachers while talking with Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski during a ground breaking ceremony at Loeb Stadium, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2019 in Lafayette. The 79-year-old stadium will be torn down and rebuilt on the same spot, reopening in 2021. Nikos Frazier | Journal & Courier

Ground breaking ceremony for the new Loeb Stadium, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2019 in Lafayette. The 79-year-old stadium will be torn down and rebuilt on the same spot, reopening in 2021. Nikos Frazier | Journal & Courier

The Loeb Stadium scoreboard is framed by two excavators parked in left field, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2019 in Lafayette. The 79-year-old stadium will be torn down and rebuilt on the same spot, reopening in 2021. Nikos Frazier | Journal & Courier

A rendering of the new Loeb Stadium is displayed during a ground breaking ceremony at Loeb Stadium, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2019 in Lafayette. The 79-year-old stadium will be torn down and rebuilt on the same spot, reopening in 2021. Nikos Frazier | Journal & Courier

LAFAYETTE – A week after Mayor Tony Roswarski said he’d hoped to keep projects “moving to the best of our ability,” the city is preparing to halt construction of Loeb Stadium, a $20 million remake of the ball field in Columbian Park.

Work is expected to stop by Friday, the city announced Tuesday morning.

“While the Loeb Stadium project is of great importance to the city of Lafayette, the health and safety of workers and the community at large remains the city’s top priority,” a city release said. “In an effort to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, the city believes that suspending work on Loeb Stadium is the best decision at this time.”

The city broke ground in August 2019, shortly after the Lafayette Aviators finished their Prospect League season and as demolition crews prepped to take out the concrete stands of the old Loeb Stadium. The new stadium will replace one built in 1940 and that served as the home of the Lafayette Jefferson High School baseball team, decades of the Colt World Series, Post 11 Legion baseball teams and more.

The new Loeb Stadium is going up where the old one was on the southwest side of Columbian Park. But it will be rotated 180 degrees. Home plate will be where centerfield once was and pushed closer to Main Street.

In the past two weeks, bricks started to go up around the steel structure, giving shape to dugouts and the grandstand.

The stadium was designed to hold 2,600 people, including 1,910 fixed seats. The rest would be split among lawn seating, suites and concourse tables.

Jon Miner, director of operations for the Lafayette Parks Department, had said Loeb Stadium was expected to be done by late December. The first pitch was expected to come in spring 2021.

Rendering of Loeb Stadium, which is scheduled to open in 2021(Photo: American Structurepoint)

Roswarski said the stadium was designed so it could host more than baseball, with eyes toward concerts, soccer and more.

On April 6, the city is expected to open bids from baseball teams making their cases to be the home team at Loeb Stadium. The lease was up on Lafayette Aviators, a Prospect League team that has played at Loeb for the past four seasons. The Aviators were scheduled to play at Purdue’s Alexander Field in 2020. Roswarski said the city asked for teams to submit proposals to be the next home team to make sure Lafayette had the right fit.

Lafayette plans to recommend a club by June, according to a request for proposals the city’s parks board issued earlier this year.

IN WEST LAFAYETTE: Meanwhile, work continued across the Wabash River on West Lafayette’s city hall renovation at the former Morton Community Center, 222 N. Chauncey Ave., and the city’s Wellness and Aquatics Center at Cumberland Park.

“We have left the decision ups to the project manager,” West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis said Tuesday. “As of today, they are still working on both projects. … It goes without saying that they are practicing spacing and hygiene protocols, even to the point of Skyping meetings.”

City hall was expected to be ready for move-in by the end of 2020. The Wellness and Aquatics Center is expected to open in January 2021.

Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.